Dude, really? Just admit it: homophobes dying off like dinosaurs. I was listening to a really terrific radio documentary by Michigan Public Radio’s Lester Graham the other day when I heard something right at the very end that made me about pee in my pants because it was so hilariously delusional. It was a statement from noted homophobic bigot Gary […]

A rock on one side and a hard place on the other Last year, the Detroit Institute of Arts had over a half million visitors. The museum is a huge tourist draw and an anchor for the area of Detroit that surrounds it. The cost to the city of Detroit for this priceless collection of art is exactly zero dollars. […]

Hallelujah! Photo credit: Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog I’ve written before about the amazing Hamtown Farms urban farm/garden in Hamtramck. The farm, which occupies vacant lots in Michigan’s most densely populated city, was a bright spot in a town that is struggling and under the control of an Emergency Manager. Although she had the power to save the farm […]

Non-problem: solved! Michigan Republican Represenative Mike Shirkey introduced House Bill 4044 last January. The bill’s intent is to ensure that companies selling health insurance on the Michigan health care exchange that was made possible by the Affordable Care Act can sell insurance off the exchange as well. Here’s the bill in full: Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, an insurer […]

It’s the time of year to be thankful After going up for three straight months in a row, June through August, we now have some good news: Michigan’s unemployment rate has flat-lined at 9.0%: It’s an interesting chart. Michigan Republicans and Governor Snyder ensured us that making Michigan an anti-worker right to work (for less) state was going to create […]

Dear goddess, no. Just no. Senator Rand Paul, who has publicly told America that he does not support the part of the Civil Rights Act that forbids businesses from doing things like preventing African Americans from entering their premises, will be in Detroit on December 6th to open the Republican African American Engagement Office. Oh, the irony. Paul told the […]

Who woulda thunk it? In 2012, thanks to Republicans ending the tax break Michigan residents can receive for charitable giving, most people predicted that charitable giving would plummet. It wasn’t a risky prediction, of course. It’s common sense. It was a move made by the GOP to pay, in part, for a massive tax break they gave to corporations. Well, […]

Methinks thou dost protest too much A couple of days ago I reported on a bill Republicans have introduced that requires health insurance providers to tell you what part of your health insurance premium is the result of the Affordable Care Act. As wrote in the piece, this bill requires boilerplate language that the insurance companies must use that says […]

You will know them by the friends they keep Florida Congressman Trey Radel announced yesterday that he’s “taking a leave of absence” after being busted earlier in the week for buying cocaine from undercover police officers. Radel is a supreme hypocrite. Earlier this year he voted for legislation that would require anyone receiving food stamps to be drug tested. No […]

Who could have EVER seen this coming??? A downgrade of the bond ratings of 53 Michigan school districts is proving what charter school opponents have long warned against: charter schools are diminishing public schools’ ability to have stable budgets by siphoning off tax dollars into for-profit corporations. Moody’s Investors Service made this move this week citing “significant fiscal strain related […]

Remember this number: 94.3% Michigan Republicans love to pass laws with “immediate effect”. It avoids the whole “gotta wait until 90 days after the close of the current legislative session” thing and the laws they pass go into effect immediately. They love it so much that, when I last did my analysis in early September, they had passed 94.3% of […]